Comprehensive Budgeting from Individual to Government

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Introduction

Budgets are an essential component of our lives, from our personal expenses, to our businesses or organizations, to the way our governments work. From a very early age, my mother tried to teach me the importance of planning and strategizing, included in what had to do with our finances. As I grew older, and especially as I became a student living on a modest stipend, I had to perfect the art of budgeting. The most difficult tasks for me were always having real expectations of the actual money I had, deciding what was absolutely necessary versus what was luxury, and thinking about saving in a strategic way. This translates to the strategies we need and follow in our workplace, as well as the everyday decision-making processes of the governing bodies of our communities. As Rachel Siegel and Carol Yacht suggest, one of the most important aspects of budgeting is making sure that the goals that are set play in harmony with the behaviors that are adopted. (Siegel and Yacht, 2010)
In understanding budget theory, one of the most basic concepts is the topic of this budget theory paper, comprehensive budgeting. Concepts like capital budgets and operating budgets emanate from the concept of comprehensive budgeting, which encompasses all the terms we consider in building our personal, organizational, and governmental budgets. The following section briefly describes what a comprehensive budget means, what it is comprised off, why it is important to understand, and a few examples.

Comprehensive Budget

As mentioned before, a comprehensive budget encompasses all the terms we are used to hearing in our financial life. In putting together a comprehensive budget you have to factor in recurring and nonrecurring incomes and expendi...

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...Conclusion
It is not difficult to understand the importance of comprehensive budgeting in managing our own personal finances, our organization’s finances, and our government’s finances. The same basic principles are translated to each level, and the accordance of goal setting and behaviors proves to be key in every sector. Budgeting proves to be very important for the successful development of our communities, and the process of budgeting serves as an essential tool to assess their financial realities and efficiently strategize to fix any issues and/or continue a growth path. Not doing so has many organizational, practical and even legal consequences, but when the financial irresponsibility rules for as long as it has in places like Puerto Rico, very severe and impactful repercussions (increased emigration, increased crime rate, etc.) are to be faced by the people.

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